An amazing collection of 40s and 50s jazz drawings by Gene Deitch – the complete anthology of his work for legendary jazz magazine Record Changer! Gene was an amazing artist and cartoonist, whose work helped solidify the legacies of some of the most famous cartoon characters in the American pop culture canon – from Popeye, to Tom & Jerry and beyond – but we're especially in love with his jazz-centric Record Changer era! Gene adored jazz and his love for it really shows! Cat On A Hot Thin Groove includes all of his magazine covers, cartoon panels and other bits from Record Changer – versatile work that ranges from fun, cartoon-y panels of "Jazz Cat" characters, to more elaborate and abstract illustrations. Wonderful, vital stuff – and it's very nicely anthologized here by Fantagraphics! Coffee-table scale paperback – 160+ pages of prime Deitch jazzy drawings with text accompaniment. Book

The story of Guided By Voices – a group who labored in the American underground for quite some time before finding big fame – a story that makes the group's success far more interesting than most! The book details all the work and time that Robert Pollard put into getting the group going, and finding the right path forward – and Pollard cooperated heavily with the author, so that his voice is every bit as much a part of the book as that of James Greer. This softcover edition features a black and white photo section in the middle, and some great discographical details at the end – including solo and side projects too. 319 pages. Book

Chinese detective fiction, but with a fascinating twist – a series of separate, but related crime stories – all involving a single detective – presented in reverse order from the present to the past! Written that way, the story takes on a completely different perspective than in a more conventional mode – as the details as a whole are a bit more oblique, and only get greater exposure and understanding as you move backwards in time. As part of that process, the story also follows the changes in Hong Kong, moving backwards – and as with all great detective fiction set in New York, the city is as much a character of the story as the individuals within it. 490 pages, softcover. Book

An all hip-hop issue of Wax Poetics – with the late Notorious BIG living large on the front cover – alongside other great features on Blackalicious, Schoolly D, T Eric Monroe, Grandmaster Flowers, Sue Kwon, Yo Yo, and Super Cat – plus a look at the photography of B+, whose images have graced Wax Poetic pages for years – and a great feature on hip hop zines, and the way we communicated about the music in the years before bigger publications like this! As usual, the Wax Poetics presentation is more than worth the price – lavish full color heavy paper pages, 144 of them in all – presented book-style, with almost no ads either! Magazine